Pace setter

ABSTRACT

A speedometer to pace a horse&#39;&#39;s speed in pulling a sulky over a pre-set distance, the instrument including a speedometer of known construction and operated by cable connection with a wheel of the sulky, a housing for the speedometer proper, a removable transparent cover for the housing, a dial visible through the said cover, a plurality of angular scales on the dial, a pointed mounted for oscillating movement along said scales and an index finger adjustable relatively to the scales; use of a stop watch and having to look for the quarter mile pole is oviated.

United StatesPatent' Hinkley eta1.

14 1 Sept. 19,1972

[541 PACE SETTER [72] inventors: Clyde E. Hinkley, 107 South Main Street, Holley, N.Y.. 14470; William A. Lusk, Eagle Harbor Road, Albion, NY. 14411 [22] Filed: Nov. 29, 1968 [21] Appl. No.: 779,749

[52] [1.8. CI. ..ll6/11'6, 116/129, 235/97 511 Int. Cl. ..G0lp l/06 [58] Field of Search "116/116, 129, 57, 73, 56, 61; I 280/63; 235/97 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 597,605 1/1898 Decker ..280/63 598,598 2/1898 Gathor et a1 ..235/95 825,295 7/1906 Blanchard ..235/97 Davis ..l16/57 Powell ..1 16/57 1,747,355 2/1930 Elworthy ..1 16/1 16 2,088,326. 7/1937 Klopfer ..1 16/129 2,169,048 8/1939 Howe et a1 ..1 16/129 X 3,482,851 12/1969 Pickard ..280/63 Primary Examiner Louis .1. Capozi [57] ABSTRACT A speedometer to pace a horse's speed in pulling a sulky over a pre-set distance, the instrument including a speedometer of known construction and operated by cable connection with a wheel of the sulky, a housing for the speedometer proper, a removable transparent cover for the housing, a dial visible through the said cover, a plurality of angular scales on the dial, a pointed mounted for oscillating movement along said scales and an index finger adjustable relatively to the scales; use of a stop watch and having to look for the quarter mile pole is oviated.

2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PACE SETTER The present invention, while relating to a speedometer in general, has more particular reference to an instrument of this character adapted to a horse drawn vehicle, a main object of the invention being the provision of a simple, accurate and easily readable speedometer the function of which is to pace the speed of a horse pulling a sulky over a predetermined distance.

Other objects and advantages of the invention are, to to show thedriver at a glance how fast the horse is traveling, to make it easier to train a horse to run a given distance without having to use a stop watch and at the same time keep an eye on the quarter mile pole and, to make less possible the horse being overtrained.

A further object of the invention is the provision an adjustable counter which registers in miles how far a horse has traveled in a given day or week.

' And, a still further object of the invention is the provision of a new and novel speedometer for the purpose set forth which is of few parts, inexpensive to manufacture and install and a valuable instrument in training race horses.

To these and other ends, as will become apparent from the perusal of the following detailed description, the invention consists of a pace setting speedometer as clearly shown in the accompanying drawing forming a part of the specification. It is to be understood, however, that the drawing is for the purpose of illustration, only, and that changes and modifications may be made as do not depart from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the specification and defined in the appended claims.

The drawing is as follows;

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the invention.

F IG. 2 is a sectional elevation taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

In the drawing like reference numerals indicate similar parts in the two views.

Numeral 5 indicates a transparent plastic cover having a flat inner surface, a preferably slightly convex outer'surface 6 and formed with a depending internally threaded annular flange 7 into which is threaded a rubber gasket 8 the latter encircling the reduced upper end of a cylindrical body 9 comprising a housing for a casing 10 of any conventionally known type of speedometer. interposed between the flat bottom of the cover 5 and top of the housing 9 in a transparent glass plate which provides an inner cover 12, there being an open space 13, as will be explained, between this inner cover 12 and the top surface of speedometer housing 10.

Extending through an opening in the housing 9 is shown a fragmentary portion of the usual speedometer cable 14 one end of such cable being connected to a wheel or hub of a sulky while its other end has driving connection with the gearing within the speedometer casing 10, such gearing with the exception of an oscillating shaft 15 not being shown. Fixed to this shaft 15 is a pointer 15 free to move in the space 13 and visible to the driver of the horse through the outer and inner covers 5 and 12, respectively.

On or embedded in the plastic cover 5 is a dial 17 which, in this instance, is a ring concentric with the speedometer shaft 15. The outer peripheral edge of dial 17 constitutes a minute and second scale 18 while the inner peripheral edge of the dial in like manner has calibrations whereby it becomes a second-per-quarter mile scale 19. And, superimposed on the inner scale 19 is a third scale 20 which registers miles-per-hour and shows at a glance how fast the horse is traveling.

It will be observed from the above, and by reference to the drawing, FIG. 2, that the minute and seconds calibrations on the outer scale 18 are in radial alignment with corresponding second and quarter mile calibrations on the inner scale 19. It may here be stated that a cavity 11 may also include an adjustable mile counter, seen at 21, FIG. 1.

A narrow laterally extending opening 22 cut through the gasket 8 provides means whereby a manually operated tool, not shown, may be inserted into the space 13 for selective adjustment of an index finger 23 to the calibrations along scale 19, finger 23 to the desired speed for a horse to run a given distance. When the pointer 15 comes into alignment with the set index finger 23 the horse is running at a desired speed.

It may again be stated that it is easier to train a horse to run a given distance without having to look at a stop v watch and quarter mile pole, and a horse is less apt to be overstrained or have its lungs ruined by overtraining. Also, by this invention an accurate timetable of miles-per-hour training can be kept.

What I claim is:

1. In a pace setter, the combination of a speedometer casing, a fiat transparent glass plate comprising an inner cover being positioned over one open end of said speedometer casing, an externally threaded rubber gasket being fitted over the peripheral area of said inner cover, over the outer side of said speedometer casing, the outer side of said flanged portion of said gasket being externally threaded and a transparent plastic cover being fitted above said transparent glass plate inner cover, said transparent plastic cover having a flat side adjacent a flat side of said inner cover, the opposite side of said transparent plastic cover being outwardly convex in configuration, and said transparent plastic cover having an annular flange that is internally threaded for engagement with said external thread of said rubber gasket.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said pace setter is in combination with an attachment to an horse drawn sulkey, the combination of a speedometer including a shaft, driving connection between a wheel of said sulkey and said shaft permitting oscillating movement of the shaft and a pointer on such shaft of a housing for said speedometer, a removable transparent said plastic cover of said pace setter, a dial visible therethrough, a plurality of annular scales concentric with said shaft, and an index finger adjustably moveable in a circular path for radial alignment with pre-determined calibrations of said scales, the outer one of said scales having minute and second calibrations, those on an inner scale being seconds and quarter-mile calibrations while the calibrations of a third scale superimposed on the said inner scale designates miles per hour, said minute and second calibrations of said scale being in radial alignment with corresponding calibrations on said inner scale, the said speedometer also including an adjustable mile counter showing how far a horse has traveled in a given period of time, and said gasket having a cut out to permit insertion' of a tool into' a central open space above said spe edometer-for manipulation of said index finger. 

1. In a pace setter, the combination of a speedometer casing, a flat transparent glass plate comprising an inner cover being positioned over one open end of said speedometer casing, an externally threaded rubber gasket being fitted over the peripheral area of said inner cover, over the outer side of said speedometer casing, the outer side of said flanged portion of said gasket being externally threaded and a transparent plastic cover being fitted above said transparent glass plate inner cover, said transparent plastic cover having a flat side adjacent a flat side of said inner cover, the opposite side of said transparent plastic cover being outwardly convex in configuration, and said transparent plastic cover having an annular flange that is internally threaded for engagement with said external thread of said rubber gasket.
 2. The combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said pace setter is in combination with an attachment to an horse drawn sulkey, the combination of a speedometer including a shaft, driving connection between a wheel of said sulkey and said shaft permitting oscillating movement of the shaft and a pointer on such shaft of a housing for said speedometer, a removable transparent said plastic cover of said pace setter, a dial visible therethrough, a plurality of annular scales concentric with said shaft, and an index finger adjustably moveable in a circular path for radial alignment with pre-determined calibrations of said scales, the outer one of said scales having minute and second calibrations, those on an inner scale being seconds and quarter-mile calibrations while the calibrations of a third scale superimposed on the said inner scale designates miles per hour, said minute and second calibrations of said scale being in radial alignment with corresponding calibrations on said inner scale, the said speedometer also including an adjustable mile counter showing how far a horse has traveled in a given period of time, and said gasket having a cut out to permit insertion of a tool into a central open space above said speedometer for manipulation of said index fInger. 